Many years back, when I did some freelance work for the local Woke Gazette at the behest of then editor and now publisher and chief cook and bottle washer for several publications in the chain, there was an abundance of what I call vanity columnists appearing in the paper.
Still are, apparently.
Being the consummate professional, I insisted on being paid. Many who contributed columns to the Woke Gazette then, and perhaps still do so, act out of the need to be recognized, albeit by a rapidly declining circulation.
They work for free just to get the ego boost of seeing their mugs in the paper, in a positive light.
I recall one such person, Sister Moonbeam I nicknamed her, who was always lamenting the plight of the illegal aliens. In a telling incident of timing, the editor-now-publisher, a guy who leans hard left, questioned some numbers in a column I had submitted.
Perhaps it was because he did not agree with the column’s premise. Regardless, I gave him several sources of my numbers and got an “oh” or something similar.
But, me being me and all that, and since he had brought up the topic, I asked if he ever questioned Sister Moonbeam’s assertions in her scribblings? In a concurrent effort from her, she had claimed illegals contribute some huge number in taxes and Social Security contributions and get no benefits. I can’t recall the exact amount, but it was monstrous, as in a lot of billions of dollars, maybe hundreds of billions.
Several questions sprang to mind, including how does one document such stuff when by definition the illegals are undocumented? Was it just a guess? Did the great keeper of the journalistic flame at the Woke Gazette ask where she got her numbers?
I’m sure he did not, because he liked her slant. Alas, Sister Moonbeam perhaps tired of working for free and no longer appears in Woke Gazette print, at least not as far as I can tell.
Perhaps she transitioned to a male and ginned up a new name.
One might speculate her writing style could identify her/him if she still was torturing a keyboard, but, alas, most of these vanity columnists write the same, which is to say not very well.
I thought of Sister Moonbeam today while surfing the internet and seeing many updates on just how much we are wasting on illegals and even those legal immigrants who get that certification from blue states and cities, regardless of any of what might be considered disqualifying attributes.
Begin with Minnesota, AKA New Somalia, or is it North Somalia?
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, as reported on Breitbart.com, about 80 percent of Somali households in Minnesota are on one form or other of the public dole. By way of comparison about 21 percent of native born Americans in that state are dependent on public welfare of some sort or another.
If there are children in the house, about 89 percent of Somali households are on some manner of welfare.
Remember how the Myopia 2025 people assured us that any Afghan refugees they slipped into town would be contributors. That sort of flies in the face of immigrant history in this century.
Yes, once upon a time immigrants would come to America legally and were expected to be able to prove self-sufficiency, or least have some sponsor willing to take on that responsibility.
Those immigrants also tended to be overwhelmingly a better fit culturally for this nation and were expected to assimilate, the so-called melting pot, rather than cluster in enclaves and seek to take control politically.
On another front, a story on zerohedge.com today reported more than 9,500 commercial truck drivers have had their licenses pulled because they cannot speak English. I’m sure all are not illegals, but many probably are.
Vetting processes are ridiculous. Our own great state of Pennsylvania, which seems to require a pint of blood, DNA samples, a first-born child, written pleas and massive documentation from lifelong residents seeking Real ID cards, is reported to hand them out like Halloween candy to immigrants, legal or not.
An audit found about 25 percent of the foreigners given CDLs by California should not have gotten them.
Sister Moonbeam would be so proud.
Before we leave, zerohedge.com had a story from CBS News today about how alleged fraudsters in Minnesota – yes, many Somalis – ripped off hundreds of millions of dollars in tax dollars intended to feed children and instead used it for luxury cars, trips, and money sent back to the homeland.
Again, where are you Sister Moonbeam when we need you to explain away all this?
Sam Ross Jr's site 